Apple's Engineering Chief Headed For Retirement

Bob Mansfield, Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering who's overseen the development of the iPad since inception and the Mac since 2005, is leaving the company. Mansfield had been a key figure in product development at Apple, and was also handed the reigns to the iPhone and iPod in 2010. Apple enthusiasts will recognize him as a fixture of the company's famous product introduction videos, in which various Apple executives wax rhapsodically about their latest device in front of an all-white background.

Mansfield is being replaced by his second-in-command, Dan Riccio. Riccio is an old-school Apple guy in his own right, having first joined the company as a product designer in 1998.